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Facebook rolls out new ‘Playable Ads’ across the platform

Facebook rolls out new ‘Playable Ads’ across the platform

Good news, game developers! Facebook has announced the introduction of ‘Playable Ads’, a new type of advert that enables users to try out a mobile game before they purchase or download it.

As Matt Binder from Mashable reports, the new ads will appear in the News Feed, allowing you to test a small portion of the game without leaving the Facebook platform. There’s also no download required to play the game through the ads, which means users can quickly sample the game directly from their News Feed.

According to Facebook, Bagelcode, a social casino game developer, saw a 3.2X improvement in return on their Android ad spend, and a 1.4X improvement for iOS. Rovio, the company that developed Angry Birds, experienced a 70% lift on their return on ad spend in the first 7 days. They also saw a 40% lower cost per paying user.

Alongside the new ‘Playable Ads’, Facebook has also released a retention optimisation feature for ads. This will give game developers the opportunity to monetise their in-app adverts, as well as ensure that they target users that are likely to re-engage with these ads.

The TJM take: Because no download is required for users to test out a game through one of Facebook’s new Playable Ads, there’s no commitment involved. This doesn’t just make them more likely to engage with the advert; it also reduces the amount of users downloading an app from an ad to see if they like it and would use it, only to uninstall it shortly afterwards, or simply never use it again.

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